Djako Shekinaelle Fattoh

This missionary has completed service. Her advance number will remain active until December 31, 2018.

Djako Shekinaelle Fattoh is a Global Mission Fellow of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, serving for two years with the Jerusalem Francophone United Methodist Church, based in Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Shewas commissioned in August 2016.

The Global Mission Fellows program takes young adults ages 20-30 out of their home environments and places them in new contexts for mission experience and service. The program has a strong emphasis on faith and justice. Global Mission Fellows become active parts of their new local communities. They connect the church in mission across cultural and geographical boundaries. They grow in personal and social holiness and become strong young leaders, working to build just communities in a peaceful world.

The Church of Christ in Congo, organized in 1912, is the philanthropic, educational, and health ministry agency for 74 Protestant denominations in the vast DRC. It relates to 18,720 primary, secondary, and vocational schools, 48 colleges and universities, and manages 60 percent of the medical centers in the country. It operates at the national level through six departments, ranging from evangelism to ecology. Djako is part of a team involved in peace education, civic training, youth capacity building, health education, and violence and drug abuse prevention.

Djako is from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where she is a member of the Peniel United Methodist Church in the Cote d’Ivoire Annual Conference. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the British Institute of Management and Technologies in Abidjan. She has worked as a bilingual assistant for both health-related and evangelistic organizations and as an executive assistant in human resources.

Her faith journey has been strongly influenced by regular communion with God through prayer and meditation each morning, noon, and evening. She also fasts once a week. Djako grew up in an observant Christian home. “I met the Lord very early, at the age of 13, after the death of my father, who was a servant of God and a Methodist pastor. He introduced me to the gospel; he taught me to share, and to share the word of God,” she says.

Her call to mission reflects her commitment to sharing the gospel. “Pursuing missionary service helps me to be closer to my Father’s will,” she says. “I think it is because of missionary service that God helped me in my university studies and professional choices. God wants me to be his hands among people, taking care of them physically, socially, and spiritually.”